The auto alliance of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with DiDi Chuxing, the leading Chinese mobility transportation platform, to explore a potential partnership in the People’s Republic of China, the company announced in a press release.
The Alliance and DiDi have signed the MOU to explore future business partnerships on a new electric vehicle car-sharing program.
“The potential business and technology opportunities that we will explore with DiDi are quite promising,” Ogi Redzic, senior vice president of Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services for Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, said in a press release. “This cooperation fits with the Alliance expansion in vehicle electrification, autonomy, connectivity and new mobility services.”
The MOU highlights the Alliance’s latest attempt at developing mobility services. The OEM launched a corporate venture capital fund earlier this year to invest $1 billion in innovation, with a focus on mobility tech such as electric vehicles, autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence. RCI Bank and Services — the Alliance’s captive — has also shifted toward mobility services over the last few years and most recently relaunched the mobility aggregator Karhoo in December 2017.
DiDi, the largest ride-sharing company in China, announced plans to expand into other mobility services such as car-sharing at the 2017 World Internet Conference. The mobile transportation company also operates 260,000 electric vehicles, with plans to increase that number to one million, the company announced in November 2017.
Renault-Mitsubishi Nissan did not respond for a comment by press time.
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